Response to introducing a pupil premium

The Commision responded to the Department for Education's consultation on school funding 2011-2012: Introducing a pupil premium, which was launced in July 2010.

Introduction

The EHRC welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation on the introduction of a pupil premium. A wealth of evidence shows that education is a key determinant of life chances. As well as being a right in itself, education is an enabling right, allowing individuals to develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights and economic opportunities. Breaking the cycle of disadvantage, deprivation and underachievement is therefore a key imperative and the EHRC is very much in favour of additional support being provided to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds for this purpose.

In our response, we focus on equality matters where our expertise and evidence lies and, in particular, on the importance of linking pupil premium indicators with equality indicators.